Training camp has come to a close and we are all very excited to be finally headed out to the mission field that we have be preparing for for the past five days. Admits much beautiful, hot, heavy weather the team came together for the first time face to face and sacrificed much in order for us to be a unified team, which is one of the most important things on mission field.
We as a leadership team are blown away by the people on this team; the maturity, the conviction, the selflessness. If we had to pick one word right now to describe ourselves, as a team, the word we would pick would be unified. We are all so unified and it comes out in the way we treat each other, the way we interact, the way we love. The best part about it is that we haven’t even reached the mission field yet.
Everyone is very tired, and yes I mean everyone. AIM training camps have a very special way of “kicking our butts” and pushing us on in the direction that we need to be in to best show the love of Jesus to the Nations. We have been learning drimes, the word, a combination of dramas and mimes but are nothing more than plays put to music that display Gods love without saying a word. The team has been doing these in almost 100 degree temperatures. Amazing. The guys had to be in every single one because there is a Devil and a Jesus in every one, while the girls could take turns learning.
We did an obstacle course and a spiders web which involved crawling on the ground a lot, and took a good portion of 4 hours each to finish. Our team was surprised when they found out we would have to be caring for two chickens the entire training camp. Their names were Isabella and Beyonce and we called them our friends because we weren’t allowed to call them chickens. We have learned what it’s like to want to be heard but not being able to when there are 16 other people that would love to have a chance to give their opinion. It’s one of the hardest things that a team of this size has to learn; to LISTEN! But we are and it’s a slow process but everyone is very keen to everyone else’s emotions and we are a stronger more unified team then when we started. Everyone has such a good attitude that doesn’t always happen on teams.
The team has been learning about different areas of the Bible. The Holy Spirit, Identity in Christ, Spiritual Warfare, and what it looks like to give up your cares to the Lord are a few examples. Some things have been harder to deal with than others but we’re a team and we handle things like a team, When someone on the team is struggling with something we let them talk, we listen, surround them, pray for them, and lift them up in a unison prayer and move on to the next thing. Our summer is going to be full of this.
Today we did an ATL, which simply means, ask the Lord, for the first time in public and it went very well. We went to a local Wal-Mart and the team was just suppose to pray and ask God where he wanted them to go. So in teams of 3 to 4 The Lord directed people where he wanted them and there were very good things that came of it. Some people on the team were a little scared about having to go share their faith with people they didn’t know but at the end of the time everyone had gained a new understanding about what it was like to fully go where God is literally telling you to go at that time. It was great.
So tomorrow morning at 5 AM we are on a bus to the Atlanta airport to sit on a plane headed halfway around the world for 17 or so hours. We will all have a very long trip to rest and we will have more time to rest when we arrive in South Africa before we head to Swaziland.
Saying all that, the team is in very high spirits and very excited about experiencing God in new and creative ways. I think each person here realizes God is a little bit bigger than they thought when they got here and I think they will realize that he’s a little bit bigger still once we get done on the mission field. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers and God bless.
Swaziland leadership team,
Tana, Page, and Jesse
